Our View: Spring break headaches

Published: Friday, April 11, 2014 at 05:36 PM.

Northwest Florida had a rough winter and now it’s having a rough Spring Break. As temperatures have risen, so have the number of arrests for underage drinking and the decibel level of residents’ complaints.

Folks are worried even in Panama City Beach, which has established itself as a rowdy, crowded Spring Break mecca. After Fox News aired a report on the beachside debauchery, the issue dominated Tuesday’s meeting of the Bay County Tourist Development Council. Said one business owner: “I honestly believe that we’re better than this.”

Walton County officials, too, believe their beaches are better than what Fox News highlighted. They’ve been arresting spring breakers by the hundreds — mostly for alcohol-related offenses — in the hope that a crackdown will, in Sheriff Mike Adkinson’s words, “slow down the party train.”

Hard partying, though, isn’t the only thing local authorities want to slow down. There are examples aplenty of bad decision-making.

When a sheriff’s deputy at Seaside tried to help a spring breaker who suffered a seizure Tuesday night, somebody tossed a water bottle that hit the deputy’s face. Deputies closed the beach. “This is not behavior we will tolerate,” said a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Last month, authorities said, the father of a spring breaker who’d been arrested grabbed a golf club and bashed six cars in the Walton County Jail’s parking lot. He was arrested, too.

And there was that episode where a guy in a pickup truck ran over a sunbather. The Destin woman was seriously injured.

Northwest Florida had a rough winter and now it’s having a rough Spring Break. As temperatures have risen, so have the number of arrests for underage drinking and the decibel level of residents’ complaints.

Folks are worried even in Panama City Beach, which has established itself as a rowdy, crowded Spring Break mecca. After Fox News aired a report on the beachside debauchery, the issue dominated Tuesday’s meeting of the Bay County Tourist Development Council. Said one business owner: “I honestly believe that we’re better than this.”

Walton County officials, too, believe their beaches are better than what Fox News highlighted. They’ve been arresting spring breakers by the hundreds — mostly for alcohol-related offenses — in the hope that a crackdown will, in Sheriff Mike Adkinson’s words, “slow down the party train.”

Hard partying, though, isn’t the only thing local authorities want to slow down. There are examples aplenty of bad decision-making.

When a sheriff’s deputy at Seaside tried to help a spring breaker who suffered a seizure Tuesday night, somebody tossed a water bottle that hit the deputy’s face. Deputies closed the beach. “This is not behavior we will tolerate,” said a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

Last month, authorities said, the father of a spring breaker who’d been arrested grabbed a golf club and bashed six cars in the Walton County Jail’s parking lot. He was arrested, too.

And there was that episode where a guy in a pickup truck ran over a sunbather. The Destin woman was seriously injured.

Oops. We just remembered. The pickup driver was a Walton County sheriff’s deputy. The incident happened last May.

Truth is, trouble at the beach comes in all ages, and it doesn’t have to be spring breakers. It doesn’t even have to be Spring Break.

We congratulate Walton officials on the initial success of their get-tough policy. The county’s TDC chief says the sheriff “applied the proper pressure to the proper places,” and if businesses are happy, it’s another sign the strategy has worked.

Here’s hoping Bay County, like its neighbor to the west, can find a compromise that results in a safe and sane Spring Break.